Chaos Communication Congress

From Covidiots to Meliorator: Guiding Students through an OSINT Research Project (38x100)

Air date: Dec 28, 2024

What started as a lighthearted experiment in a psychology practicum quickly turned into a semester of discoveries no textbook could offer. My students and I set out to analyze disinformation in German Telegram channels, planning to monitor these groups’ activities up to the European elections. But what awaited us exceeded all expectations: we encountered a bizarre mix of COVID-19 deniers, far-right groups, and farmers’ protests—groups that seemed like harmless eccentrics at first but revealed themselves as part of a more sophisticated disinformation strategy. A pivotal moment was when we came across a report by Austrian broadcaster AUF1, which pulled us further into the world of Russian disinformation networks than we’d ever anticipated. What did we ultimately find?